# Monument to Bartolomeo Aragazzi: Relief [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [MICHELOZZO DI BARTOLOMEO]() - Date: 1401-1450 - Technique: Marble ## Commentary The surviving fragments of the dismembered Aragazzi monument at Montepulciano are almost exclusively the work of Michelozzo. The two reliefs that decorated the sarcophagus \(still in the church, now Montepulciano Cathedral\) are closely based on Roman processional reliefs. More dynamic are two reliefs of angels \(Victoria and Albert Museum, London\) once flanking a full-length male figure, perhaps the risen Christ in Montepulciano Cathedral. The antiquarianism can be related to the cultural background of the patron, Bartolomeo Aragazzi \(whose effigy by Michelozzo is also in the cathedral\), who, as secretary and then chancellor to Pope Martin V, was a pioneering researcher of Classical texts. The Aragazzi monument anticipates <a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/r/rosselin/bernardo/bruni.html'\)" href="/html/r/rosselin/bernardo/bruni.html">Bernardo Rossellino's Bruni monument</a> \(1444; Santa Croce, Florence\) and <a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/d/desideri/marsuppi.html'\)" href="/html/d/desideri/marsuppi.html">Desiderio da Settignano's Marsuppini monument</a> \(c. 1453; Santa Croce, Florence\) in associating sculptural antiquarianism with the humanist avant-garde. The picture shows one of the two reliefs, in which the deceased is presented to the Virgin and Child. The traditional scene is treated in a quite unprecedented fashion: Aragazzi's mother, the youths portrayed in the first scene and the three children interceding with the Virgin on his behalf. ## Related artworks - [Corridor of the North Dormitory]() - [Courtyard]() - [Courtyard]() - [Exterior view]() - [Exterior view]() - [Funeral Monument of Cardinal Rainaldo Brancacci \(detail\)]() - [Funeral Monument of Cardinal Rainaldo Brancacci \(detail\)]() - [Funeral Monument of Cardinal Rainaldo Brancacci]() - [Funeral Monument to the Anti-pope John XXIII \(detail\)]() - [Funeral Monument to the Anti-pope John XXIII \(detail\)]() - [Funeral Monument to the Anti-pope John XXIII \(detail\)]() - [Funeral Monument to the Anti-pope John XXIII \(detail\)]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()